


Rebel

by lookninjas



Series: Children's Work [25]
Category: Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-04-23
Updated: 2018-04-23
Packaged: 2019-04-26 20:16:01
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,326
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14409780
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lookninjas/pseuds/lookninjas
Summary: He promised his students he'd stand with them, and he keeps his promises.  He's just scared.  Rey helps.





	Rebel

**Author's Note:**

> An anon asked me for Finn, Rey, and kittens. I combined it with an idea I'd had for Finn trying to deal with the struggle between supporting his students today and trying to make sure he kept his job so he could still be with his students tomorrow, and got this. For historical context, the exact date the story takes place on is March 13th, 2018, before the first of the post-Parkland walkouts.

He reaches out, unthinking, to scratch behind Ollie’s ears, and Rey stops him with a sharp “HEH!” that freezes his hand and sends Ollie bolting into the kitchen with a scratching of claws on tile. 

“What was that?” Finn asks, blinking at her; Rey just shrugs and finishes twisting the nail polish bottle shut. It’s a brighter orange than school colors, but it’ll have to do -- it’s the only orange thing to wear in the house, and Finn promised. 

It’s one of the things he’s been telling himself, over and over, since he made up his mind.

_You promised_.

“He only loves you because your nails are wet,” Rey informs him, and then twists to wiggle her fingers in the general direction of the kitchen, making _tchk tchk tchk_ noises with her tongue. Ollie doesn’t emerge. “See? Dry nails, no love.”

“Or maybe it’s because you were yelling at him,” Finn points out.

Rey wrinkles her nose. “I wasn’t,” she says. “I wouldn’t yell at Ollie. I love Ollie.”

_You love me_. He’s not starting that conversation. He has started that conversation too many times with too many people in the last few days and it always ends the same and he does not need to ask again. Everyone loves him. Everyone will love him regardless of whether he marches or not. Everyone will love him whether he has a job or not. He is fine. Everything is fine. It’s fine.

Rey’s nose stays wrinkled. “Do you need me to say it again?” she asks, and Finn scoffs.

“No.” _Yes. Please_. “And okay, you weren’t yelling at Ollie but you made the noise like he was in trouble, which you do make, and for a cat that’s basically the same thing as yelling at him. I mean, you did do that. It did happen. May have been directed towards me and not him, but he’s a cat. He’s not gonna know.” 

Now Rey is outright frowning. She turns, looks toward the kitchen. “That’s fair,” she says, finally. “God. I hope I didn’t give him some sort of complex. I don’t know, it just sort of -- Because Ocho keeps climbing on the kitchen counters, and I don’t want him near the stove, and I guess I just --”

Well, at least they’re both panicking. That’s… Something. “Rey,” he says, because he probably can’t touch her right now. Wet nails. “I’m sure it’s fine. He’s fine. I mean, it’s not like it’s ever stopped either of them for more than a second, so. He’ll be fine. He’s probably already forgotten about it, even.”

As if on cue, crunching sounds from the kitchen. Hopefully cat food. Everything else should be out of reach anyway. He’s pretty sure. He hopes.

“Yeah,” Rey says, softly, just at about the time Finn’s brain reminds him that he has kittens to support now, _kittens_ , and if he loses his job, then it’s up to Rey to support him and the kittens (the _kittens_ ), and -- 

Rey sighs, rests a hand on his face. “Listen to me,” she says. “You’re doing the right thing. It is _exceedingly_ unlikely that you will get fired for this, but if the worst comes to it and you do, we will figure it out. This isn’t going to ruin anything. Not your career, not us, not… Not anything.”

She doesn’t know that. Nobody can know that. “I know,” he says, quiet, and keeps his hands still and stretched out on his knees. His fingernails feel strange. How is he supposed to know when they’re dry, anyway? “I know.”

“No you don’t,” she says, and smiles, and kisses him. When she pulls back, she adds, “But you will.”

He loves Rey. He really does. Sometimes steadily, sometimes desperately -- it depends on the day. But. She’s a little strange sometimes. Like the rest of her family. His family, now. His family too.

“I’ll take your word for it,” he says, and she smiles, kisses him again.

He loves her. He loves her. He does.

And that, maybe, is part of the problem. It’s been a long time since he had this much to lose.

But if he doesn’t keep his promise. If he lets his students walk out without him, take that risk without him --

What does he lose then?

_What are you trying to teach them?_ That was Luke’s question. Typical -- Finn came to him for answers, and got a question instead. _What do you want them to learn from this?_

He’d already known, of course, which was of course the point. 

Still.

“It was supposed to be smaller than this,” Finn says, finally. That was what he prepared for. That was what he expected. He knew poverty; he could deal with that. Hungry kids; kids without pencils, paper, internet -- He could do that. Bad home lives, maybe; he’d seen some things. He’d done his homework. He’d thought the worst he’d have to deal with would be… Another Ben, maybe. Lost kids being led astray by bad influences.

He didn’t think he’d be fighting the fucking NRA. That was Hux’s job, not his. He was just a teacher. It was supposed to be smaller than this.

“I know,” Rey says again, and tips their foreheads together, and stays there, breathing with him.

It was never going to be smaller than this. He knows that, too. It was never -- It was, in a way. But nothing’s ever really that small.

_What do you want them to learn from this?_

Ollie pads out of the kitchen, climbs over Finn’s leg, claws into his bare arm, and then settles on his lap.

Thirty seconds later, Ocho does the same on the other side. 

“Ow,” Finn says, softly.

“Need me to get the rubbing alcohol?” Rey asks, without breaking position. She’s always good like that, never lets go before he’s ready. Not that he’s ever really needed it before now. 

Well, a little, but not like this. But it’s fine. It’s fine.

“Nah,” he says. “I’m good.” Anyway, they’re still pretty small, Ollie and Ocho. Little claws to match. Hopefully they get gentler as they get bigger, or at least better with their balance. 

One of them starts purring. The other one joins in half a second later. 

“Nails must still be wet,” he says, and doesn’t try to pet them again, although he wants to. He doesn’t want to pull away from Rey but he does it anyway, straightening his back and neck before they start to hurt too much. “Look how much they love me.”

“Hmm.” Rey smiles at him, kisses him one last time before pulling up to her feet. “I’ll get some ice water,” she says, grinning. “It’s supposed to dry them faster.”

Finn blinks as she turns away. “Wait, that -- That doesn’t even make sense!” Rey just shrugs, practically skipping into the kitchen. God, she’s evil sometimes. He loves her, but she’s evil. “That’s -- Anyway, I’m sure they’re dry now. Rey! They’re dry! Absolutely dry!”

He hears water running in the sink, ice clinking against ceramic. God, she’s evil.

Ocho looks up at him and blinks once, slow and sleepy. Someone told him, or maybe he read it somewhere, that that’s how cats say they love you. That long slow blink.

He is loved. And he loves. Rey, yes. The cats, absolutely. His family, no doubt about it.

And he loves his students, enough to take a bullet for them. Enough to fight for them. To fight with them. 

_What do you want them to learn from this?_

Other things, too, of course. There’s a reason they were already in the middle of a unit on the Civil Rights movement when all this kicked off. But first and foremost, and most importantly -- that he loves them. That he’s _with_ them.

That he keeps his promises. 

Rey comes back from the kitchen with a bowl of ice water in each hand, and Finn groans, but he braces himself anyway.

He promised.


End file.
